BARWELL OUTLINE THREE CAR BRITISH GT PROGRAMME

Former British GT championship-winning team, Barwell Motorsport, today announced they will be fielding three cars from two different GT3 manufacturers in the 2013 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, with driver line-ups that match experience and potential across the board.

The Surrey-based squad previously ran three cars in 2007, when its trio of Aston Martin DBRS9s won five races and the British GT Teams’ Championship title and the Aston Martin marque will once again feature in Barwell’s plans, with series newcomers Mark Poole and Richard Abra piloting their new Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Although relatively inexperienced, the duo won the Silverstone 24 Hours last year aboard a BMW M3 GTR and are excited about stepping up to British GT with Barwell aboard their MP Motorsport/JCAM-backed machine.

Joining the Aston will be a pair of 2013-spec BMW Z4 GT3s, one of which will again be entered under the ‘Ecurie Ecosse’ banner. Last season the Barwell-run, Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 of Alasdair McCaig and Olly Bryant came so close to winning the British GT title, and 2013 sees Bryant return for another shot.

Joining Bryant in the Ecurie Ecosse Z4 is Marco Attard, who raced in British GT last season aboard a rhinos Leipert Lamborghini and has previously driven the Ecurie Ecosse Z4 at the Silverstone round of the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series. This car will feature backing from The Calais Wine Superstore, John Clark Motor Group, Cotton Tree and Ragus.

In the sister BMW, which will be entered under ‘Ecurie Ecosse with Barwell Motorsport’, will be established British GT pairing, Piers and Ron Johnson, who have campaigned a Corvette GT3 for the last two years with BTCC team, Speedworks Motorsport. Piers is also a British GT winner with Barwell back in the Aston Martin DBRS9 days, and also drove the team’s DBR9 GT1 in the FIA GT event at Silverstone in ’07. Ron and Piers are stepping up their quest for British GT success with the move into the Z4 GT3 this season, which will be sponsored by Oilfield Production Consultants (OPC) Ltd.

Quotes:

Mark Lemmer, Team Principal
“I am hugely excited about the season ahead. The last time we had a three-car squad in British GT all of them claimed race wins, and that is certainly our goal again for this year. Although some of our drivers are quite inexperienced, we are confident that they will make rapid progress as the season plays out.”

Ron Johnson, Driver:
“It’s great to be with Barwell this year. Even with the new cars that have entered this season, I think we’re good enough to get to the front, not the middle or propping up the rear. Our main aim this season is to finish all the races and be a bit higher up than in the past few years. Last season we had a few problems with reliability, some of them could have been avoided. The BMW is a top car, and it has lots of interesting features for Piers and I to get our heads around.”